Michala Lipková
It is not a coincidence that the title of an exhibition in the ÚĽUV Design Studio – crafts.sk / open atelier – is identical with the internet address of the project of the same name active at the Design institute of the Faculty of architecture of the Slovak university of technology. Twelve design students presented twelve prototypes they want to sell through the ÚĽUV shops. Students want to expand the range of folk-production inspired design products by everyday items at favourable prices. The open atelier scheme allows the prototypes to be „open“ for discussion between a designer and a user during the exhibition. The concepts are revived during workshops when students receive feedback on the functionality, aesthetics and marketability of the prototypes. “Source code for the Slovak crafts” is another name of the project. Crafts always kept abreast of the times and reflected changes – crafts.sk project seeks to emphasise the originally progressive character of crafts. The ambition of crafts.sk is to be a long-term project that will, with help of intense cooperation among designers and craftsmen, provoke activity in the field of manual and machine production, crafts and design.